Explore WA: La Conner and Roozengaarde

First lets address the elephant in the room. Yes I am sad and disappointed that the Wildcats didn't win the national title. So close. Unexpected run in the tournament. Excitement. All to come up 4 points short of hanging another banner. Its hard to get to the championship game so who knows when it will happen again. 20 years? I hope not, but we went from 1998 to 2012 without cutting down the nets so it  could be 14 more years… I'll be 42 years old? That is scary. Let's hope it is sooner!

Wes took an artsy shot of tulips with camera :) 

Anyways the parents came out to visit for a week and we decided to go stay a couple of nights in La Conner, WA. La Conner is a little town on the water in Skagit Valley (the home of Tulip Town and Roozengaarde… acres of huge tulips and buttercups). Since it was the first of April, some of the fields had started to bloom. They all will probably be in bloom toward the end of the month. We got to experience that beauty two years ago (see Explore WA: Mt Vernon, Anacortes, and Alki Beach). Also since the tulip fields are listed as #4 on the surreal places to visit in America we thought we had to take Mom and Dad. (Check out this LIST.) I can vouch that the tulip fields are beautiful and also for Smoky Mountains and the Badlands. There are several more on the list in WA and Oregon that our family needs to visit! 

finally got a picture that captured Sadie's dimple (sorry its a little blurry) 

Well the six of us rented a house on the Skagit Bay.  The house was fine but the views were what won us over. The sunny weather was a bonus too! "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." Psalms 19:1

Leighton and Papa on the deck looking at Skagit Bay 

view from small beach at the house. We could not see another house so the privacy was a perk.

Ill take a fireplace any day. So nice to have the room compared to our 900 sq ft apartment. 

Leighton enjoyed playing with sticks and throwing rocks by the water. She was out early in pajama's and rain boots! 

No one wanted to pass up a free ride from Papa! 

Wes walked out to the cliff to check out the very very low tide. 

We strolled around La Conner and found a place to get fish on the channel. Of course Leighton spotted an elephant to ride outside of an antique store. It was the highlight of the trip for her.

Then we to see if any of the tulip fields were in bloom. A couple of fields had started but nothing like it will be in a couple of weeks. Below are a few of attempts to get both girls to smile at the same time… did not quite work. The workers who were picking tulips to sell had crates so we used them to let Sadie pull up on since the ground was muddy :) Hope they didn't mind! 

 Our attempt at family picture was also not productive. The girls just ended up looking at each other!

We walked over to an area they call Roozengaarde that had pretty flowers, mostly tulips! Leighton was our tour guide….

 Come visit us and we will gladly be your tour guides to the Tulip Festival too! Sadie is active enough to take you herself probably!

My busy body, 8 month old, Momma's girl!